Traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil

The present work presents an inventory of the traditional medicinal uses of animals in the municipality of Bom Sucesso in Paraíba State (PB) in the semiarid northeastern region of Brazil. Information was obtained through the use of semi-structured interviews with 50 people who use zootherapeutic pro...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alves, Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega, Neta, Rita Oliveira de Sousa, Trovão, Dilma Maria de Brito Melo, Barbosa, Jose Etham de Lucena, Barros, Adrianne Teixeira, Dias, Thelma Lucia Pereira
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3547754/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23050756
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-8-41
_version_ 1782256220192636928
author Alves, Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega
Neta, Rita Oliveira de Sousa
Trovão, Dilma Maria de Brito Melo
Barbosa, Jose Etham de Lucena
Barros, Adrianne Teixeira
Dias, Thelma Lucia Pereira
author_facet Alves, Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega
Neta, Rita Oliveira de Sousa
Trovão, Dilma Maria de Brito Melo
Barbosa, Jose Etham de Lucena
Barros, Adrianne Teixeira
Dias, Thelma Lucia Pereira
author_sort Alves, Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega
collection PubMed
description The present work presents an inventory of the traditional medicinal uses of animals in the municipality of Bom Sucesso in Paraíba State (PB) in the semiarid northeastern region of Brazil. Information was obtained through the use of semi-structured interviews with 50 people who use zootherapeutic products. A total of 25 animal species used for medicinal purposes were identified (18 vertebrates and seven invertebrates) distributed among five taxonomic categories; the groups with the largest numbers of citations were: mammals (8 citations), insects (7), and reptiles (5). The most cited animal species were: Tubinambis merianae “teju” lizards (44 citations); Apis mellifera Italian honeybees (318 citations); Gallus gallus chickens (31 citations); Ovis aries sheep (31 citations); Crotalus durissus rattlesnakes (14 citations); Boa constrictor (12 citations); and Bos taurus cattle (12 citations). A significant number of illnesses and conditions treated with animal-based medicines were cited, and the category with the greatest number of citations was “problems affecting the respiratory system”. Our results suggest that the use of zootherapeutics in the region is persistent, and that knowledge about these curative practices is an integral part of the regional culture. As such, studies concerning the uses of zootherapeutics are important windows to understanding human/environmental/cultural interactions and a pathway to conciliating regional cultures with efforts to conserve the native fauna.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3547754
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2012
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-35477542013-01-23 Traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil Alves, Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega Neta, Rita Oliveira de Sousa Trovão, Dilma Maria de Brito Melo Barbosa, Jose Etham de Lucena Barros, Adrianne Teixeira Dias, Thelma Lucia Pereira J Ethnobiol Ethnomed Research The present work presents an inventory of the traditional medicinal uses of animals in the municipality of Bom Sucesso in Paraíba State (PB) in the semiarid northeastern region of Brazil. Information was obtained through the use of semi-structured interviews with 50 people who use zootherapeutic products. A total of 25 animal species used for medicinal purposes were identified (18 vertebrates and seven invertebrates) distributed among five taxonomic categories; the groups with the largest numbers of citations were: mammals (8 citations), insects (7), and reptiles (5). The most cited animal species were: Tubinambis merianae “teju” lizards (44 citations); Apis mellifera Italian honeybees (318 citations); Gallus gallus chickens (31 citations); Ovis aries sheep (31 citations); Crotalus durissus rattlesnakes (14 citations); Boa constrictor (12 citations); and Bos taurus cattle (12 citations). A significant number of illnesses and conditions treated with animal-based medicines were cited, and the category with the greatest number of citations was “problems affecting the respiratory system”. Our results suggest that the use of zootherapeutics in the region is persistent, and that knowledge about these curative practices is an integral part of the regional culture. As such, studies concerning the uses of zootherapeutics are important windows to understanding human/environmental/cultural interactions and a pathway to conciliating regional cultures with efforts to conserve the native fauna. BioMed Central 2012-10-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3547754/ /pubmed/23050756 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-8-41 Text en Copyright ©2012 Alves et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Alves, Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega
Neta, Rita Oliveira de Sousa
Trovão, Dilma Maria de Brito Melo
Barbosa, Jose Etham de Lucena
Barros, Adrianne Teixeira
Dias, Thelma Lucia Pereira
Traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil
title Traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil
title_full Traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil
title_fullStr Traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil
title_full_unstemmed Traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil
title_short Traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern Brazil
title_sort traditional uses of medicinal animals in the semi-arid region of northeastern brazil
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3547754/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23050756
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-8-41
work_keys_str_mv AT alvesromuloromeunobrega traditionalusesofmedicinalanimalsinthesemiaridregionofnortheasternbrazil
AT netaritaoliveiradesousa traditionalusesofmedicinalanimalsinthesemiaridregionofnortheasternbrazil
AT trovaodilmamariadebritomelo traditionalusesofmedicinalanimalsinthesemiaridregionofnortheasternbrazil
AT barbosajoseethamdelucena traditionalusesofmedicinalanimalsinthesemiaridregionofnortheasternbrazil
AT barrosadrianneteixeira traditionalusesofmedicinalanimalsinthesemiaridregionofnortheasternbrazil
AT diasthelmaluciapereira traditionalusesofmedicinalanimalsinthesemiaridregionofnortheasternbrazil